Chapter 9:Magical specialization

Istredd led Viltz to the lower floor of the academy, until they arrived in front of a long hallway full of dormitories.

Istredd patted him on the shoulder and said, "Well, this is where you will live for the next twelve years, enjoy.

Then he left in a hurry, without waiting for Viltz's answer.

As he looked around he saw one of the dormitory doors open,out of which came a teenager of about fifteen or sixteen years old,he was short and fat,with his shaved hair and his evil grin,he looked like a typical high school bully.

The teenager opened his mouth and sneered: "Hey kid, what are you doing here, this is not an orphanage, you know, or did your parents just leave you here?

Just as the teenager was about to continue mocking, a loud slap suddenly rang out. It was Viltz, who slapped the teenager so fast that the latter didn't even have time to react.

The teenager seemed stunned for a moment, unable to process what had happened, but before he could come to his senses, Viltz grabbed the cloth-wrapped sword strapped to his back and jumped over one of the hallway doors, doing a somersault with the sword still in his hand, swinging it and slamming it into the back of the teenager's head, who collapsed to the floor causing a loud noise that attracted the attention of the people in the other dormitories.

Five boys between the ages of twelve and fourteen stood outside their bedroom doors, staring at the teenager passed out on the floor.

"Its...its dead?" asked one scrawny boy, stuttering.

"No, I just put him to sleep," Viltz replied.

Another boy looked at him in surprise and exclaimed, "You knocked Artaud out!"

Viltz paid no attention to them,simply grabbed the guy lying on the floor by the legs and began dragging him into the bedroom through which he exited, leaving him lying next to a bed,then walked out patting his hands with satisfaction.

He didn't like bullies to begin with and he also didn't want to waste his breath on a guy who just wanted to provoke him,teaching him a lesson a few times would do the trick to get him to stop bothering him.

The group of guys surrounding the door looked at Viltz with their mouths open, surprised by his actions .

The latter simply looked at them and introduced himself: "Hello everyone,my name is Vilgefortz and I will be your partner from today onwards."

The other boys could only nod awkwardly,not knowing how to respond.

Viltz, seeing the awkward atmosphere, simply asked: "What is my assigned room?"

A voice from behind him answered: "You can choose between the seventh and eighth dormitory, here at Ban Ard we assign students to rooms close to each other to further develop their friendship, and you don't seem to be doing very well from what I see.

The speaker was a stern-looking middle-aged man.

"Mr. Mardin!"The other children exclaimed,rushing into the dormitory,fearing to be reprimanded by Mr. Mardin.

Mardin,seeing this,let out a dissatisfied snort,but quickly turned his attention back to Viltz.

"I am Mardin of Rakverelin,the vice chancellor of student affairs at the academy,I will also act as a rune instructor.

As you are a newcomer I have to inform you of the rules of the academy."

"First rule:You have to obey the instructors until you graduate."

"Second rule:You can't leave the academy until you obtain the title of fourth grade master,have resigned from your academic training or have been expelled,in the last two you will be banned from the academy permanently."

"Third rule:You may not use spells outside the study classroom,if you violate this rule you will be temporarily placed in an antimagic field."

"Fourth rule:You may not hurt a fellow student without any valid justification,as you were unaware I will not take into account what you did to Artaud."

"Fourth and most important rule:Alcohol is not allowed in the academy, so don't try to smuggle it in."

When he finished speaking, the man handed Viltz a gray robe and new shoes, then turned and left.

Viltz entered his new bedroom and closed the door behind him.

The next morning, Viltz, dressed in a gray tunic, came out of the room only to find Artaud standing in front of the door.

Viltz arched an eyebrow and asked, "What's wrong?"

Artaud stared at him and snorted: "You're lucky we're forbidden to fight,otherwise I would have taught you a lesson,you damned dwarf."

Viltz rolled his eyes and replied lightly: "Like yesterday?"

Artaud turned red with shame and anger, roaring: "Yesterday you hit me because my guard was down,you're just a coward who sneak attacks.Just wait,when I get the chance,I'll teach you a good lesson."

Viltz rolled his eyes again,ignoring the other party's roars.

He walked past him and joined the other children walking toward the classroom.

Artaud was stunned for a while before chasing after Viltz as he shouted, "Bastard, don't ignore me."

The other children, seeing Artaud running towards them, rushed into the classroom, apparently afraid to get involved with the noisy guy.

As they entered the door, Viltz saw a middle-aged man waiting for them.

Seeing Viltz, the man smiled and said, "You must be the new student, right? I am Artorius Vigo, as today is your first day, we will have to test you to see what type of elemental plane you are most compatible with, come here and place your hand on this crystal orb".

Viltz walked over and placed his hand on the crystal,causing it to glow with two types of colors,orange and green.

"Wow,you seem to have compatibility with both the plane of air and the plane of fire!"Artorius exclaimed in surprise.

"I suggest you specialize in one of the two,if you put too much effort into both at once it could backfire on you."

"Remember,one should not bite off more than one can chew."

"Besides, we still don't know if you are talented in the various non-elemental magics, unfortunately we have no method of detecting such talents."

Viltz nodded gravely at Artorius' words.

He wasn't going to start spouting the typical nonsense about being able to master both magics at the same time,something that would normally be said by all the cliché protagonists of the novels he read in his past life.

He wasn't like them,he was lucky enough to be reborn with a great potential for magic as well as knowing the plot of this world,but that's just it,he wasn't the real Vilgefortz,he didn't have the cunning resulting from the latter's decades of experience in scheming,nor did he have any golden fingers or a system,something for which he was increasingly grateful.

Viltz imagined himself in a difficult situation where he could end up dying and suddenly a mechanical voice would start talking to him out of nowhere, helping him to overcome his crisis.

The day after he was reborn, he tried to call some golden finger or some system, without receiving any response, but far from being scared or frustrated at being left without any advantage in a world as dangerous as this one, he was extremely happy as this would greatly reduce the chances of him being part of some shady plan of some great existence.

If unfortunately he ended up getting a simple system, he would still accept it reluctantly, trying to discover its origins at all costs, but if he had gotten a system that gave him mandatory missions or one that conversed with its users, he would commit suicide.

Viltz still doesn't understand the mentality of the people who obtain the latter,they literally have an omniscient being inside their heads that can grant them great power that could possibly lead them to become the strongest being in their world or even their universe,and instead of wondering what qualifications they,mostly useless young people,had to be chosen by such a being,instead they start dancing for joy as soon as they see a floating window appear before them,thinking that they would already have their lives figured out.

Even the most cautious among them settle for the vaguest of explanations for these, consoling themselves with the same old line:

"When I become strong enough I will be able to decipher the mysteries of the system."

Viltz only hoped he would not run into any of these unfortunates,since he never thought he would be the only one lucky enough to be reborn in this world,if he could do it,why couldn't others,so he decided not to change things too much,only making minor changes,like accepting Zavist's proposal to join Ban Ard,although it could cause a big change in the plot,he could simply follow the steps of the original Vilgefortz after graduating,placing all the chess pieces in their right places so that the story would take its course.

Viltz wanted to change minor events to profit from them while covering his tracks and placing false clues so that, even if someone else were to be reincarnated in this world in the future and notice the differences from the original plot, he would simply follow in the footsteps of a non-existent ghost, while he hides in the dark.

Seeing Viltz standing there in a daze, Artorius thought he was still thinking about his words, so he tried to comfort him by saying, "Don't worry, you can take your time to think about which of the two types of elemental magic you want to specialize in."

Viltz came out of his daze and shook his head.

"I have already made my decision,my dream has always been to fly,I know it is very ambitious of me since only the most powerful wizards in history were able to achieve such a feat but equally I plan to dedicate myself to study such magic until I achieve it or waste my time and my life in the attempt,besides,growing up among the druids I know very well how powerful weather magic derived from wind magic is,so I plan to choose it as my specialization."

Artorius stroked his beard and nodded with satisfaction,jotting something down on a piece of paper.

"Good,now you can sit down next to your classmates so we can start the class."

Viltz sat down next to the others, listening to Artorius' lecture.